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Eph_1:6. As love was the disposition serving as motive for the divine predestination (Eph_1:5), so is the glorifying of the divine love (which, however, is here designated in accordance with its distinctive peculiarity, because it refers to sinners, Eph_2:1 ff., as grace) its divinely conceived ultimate aim, not, as Grotius would have it, consequens aliud. Comp. 2Co_1:20; Php_1:11.
εἰς ἔπαινον δόξης τῆς χάριτος αὐτοῦ (not αὑτοῦ ) means neither to the glorious praise of His grace (Grotius, Estius), nor to the praise of His glorious grace (Luther, Castalio, Beza, and most expositors, including Morus, Koppe, Flatt, Holzhausen, Meier), the one of which is just as arbitrary as the other; but: to the praise of the glory of His grace. The quality of the grace, its glory—its greatness laudably evincing itself—is brought into prominence as the object of the praise to be bestowed on it. Comp. Bernhardy, p. 53 f.; Held, ad Timol. p. 368. Bengel already in his day aptly distinguished the notions: “Primum nascitur laus gratiae, Eph_1:5, inde laus gloriae.”
δόξης without the article may not surprise us on account of the genitival definition that follows. See Winer, p. 118 f. [E. T. 155 f.].
ἧς ἐχαρίτωσεν ἡμᾶς ἐν τῷ ἠγαπ .] ἧς is attracted by the preceding τῆς χάριτος ( χάριν χαριτοῦν is conceived of as ἀγάπην ἀγαπᾶν , Eph_2:4; Joh_17:26; comp. Dem. 306, 28: χάριτας χαρίζεσθαι ) instead of ἥν . Comp. Eph_4:1; and see on 2Co_1:4; Hom. Il. xxii. 649; Arist. Pl. 1044: τῆς ὕβρεος ἧς ὑβρίζομαι . Χαριτόω means: gratia aliquem afficere; and, according as the χάρις is conceived of subjectively as love-worthiness, or objectively as the divine grace, the sense may either be: to make love-worthy, as Chrysostom[98] and his followers (comp. also Luther), Cornelius a Lapide, and many Roman Catholics (including Bisping), have taken it, understanding thereby not merely the reconciliation, but also the positive sanctifying, the justitia inhaerens; or: to grant grace (as it is taken usually). In the former sense (see Wetstein, I. p. 651), the word occurs, Niceph. Prog. ii. 2; Symm. Ps. xvii. 28; Sir_18:17; also Sir_9:8 in Cod. A; and Clem. Alex. Paed. iii. 11; in the latter sense, in Luk_1:28; Test. XII. Patr. p. 698. The latter is here decidedly correct, since the preceding τῆς χάριτος , especially with ἧς as the reading, permits no deviation from that meaning, just as Eph_1:7 sets forth simply the work of pardoning grace.
ἐν τῷ ἠγαπημένῳ ] Christ as the υἱὸς τῆς ἀγάπης αὐτοῦ , Col_1:13 (comp. Mat_3:17), is κατʼ ἐξοχήν the beloved of God, and in Him has God shown us grace, i.e. in the fact that He gave Him up to death for us (Eph_1:7), He has brought home to us His grace. Comp. Eph_2:13; Rom_8:39; 2Co_5:19. The designation of Christ by ὁ ἠγαπήμενος makes us feel the greatness of the divine grace. Comp. Rom_8:32; Rom_5:8 ff.; Joh_3:16; 1Jn_4:9 f.
[98] Chrysostom says: just as if one were to make a sick or famished man into a beautiful youth, so has God made our soul beautiful and love-worthy for the angels and all saints and for Himself.